Sir Stephen threw his head back and laughed.
"That's all right, Staff," he said. "It's been a pleasure to me. I just
wanted to see you happy--'see you' is rather inappropriate, though,
isn't it, considering how very little I have seen you? But there were
reasons--We won't go into that. Where was I?"
"You were telling us your reasons for building this place, sir," Howard
reminded him quietly.
Sir Stephen shot a glance at him, a cautious glance.
"Was I? By George! then I am more communicative than usual. My friends
in the city and elsewhere would tell you that I never give any reasons.
But what I was saying was this: that I've learnt that the world likes
tinsel and glitter--just as the Sioux Indians are caught by glass beads
and lengths of Turkey red calico. And I give the world what it wants.
See?"
He laughed, a laugh which was as cynical as Howard's.
"The world is not so much an oyster which you've got to open with a
sword, as the old proverb has it, but a wild beast. Yes, a wild beast:
and you've got to fight him at first, fight him tooth and claw. When
you've beaten him, ah! then you've got to feed him."
"You have beaten your wild beast, Sir Stephen," remarked Howard.
"Well--yes, more or less; anyhow, he seemed ready to come to my hand
for the tit-bits I can give him. The world likes to be _fêted_, likes
good dinners and high-class balls; but above all it likes to be amused.
I'm going to give it what it wants."
Stafford looked up. This declaration coming from his father jarred upon
Stafford, whose heart he had won.
"Why should you trouble, sir?" he said, quietly. "I should have thought
you would have been satisfied."
"Because I want something more from it; something in return," said Sir
Stephen, with a smile. "Satisfied? No man is satisfied. I've an
ambition yet ungratified, and I mean to gratify it. You think I'm
vaunting, Mr. Howard?" "No, I think you are simply stating a fact,"
responded Howard, gravely.
"I thank you, sir," said Sir Stephen, as gravely. "I speak so
confidently because I see my way clearly before me. I generally do.
When I don't, I back out and lie low."
Stafford found this too painful. He rose to get a light and sauntered
into the billiard-room and tried the table.
Sir Stephen looked after him musingly, and seemed to forget Howard's
presence; then suddenly his face flushed and his eyes shone with a
curious mixture of pride and tenderness and the indomitable resolution
which had helped him to fight his "wild beast." He leant forward and
touched Howard's knee.